Gearheads of War

Ok gamers, it's time for our weekly game review to discuss recent releases as well as upcoming releases.  This week's release was a bit sparse.  I guess no one wanted to go up against Ubisoft's Rainbow Six:Vegas 2 or publishers are waiting to release their titles during mid-Spring.  I, personally, dug RB6:Vegas (the first one).  The second offering comes a year after the first one graced the 360 & eventually the PS3 (lots of bugs, framerate issues, texture tearing, etc- stay away from this console offering).  The 360-version was very action oriented & intense.  The improvements in the sequel seems in line with GRAW 2, just minor improvements.  Do you really want to spend $65 on minor improvements?  Retailers have a tendency to lower the price on Ubisoft's game about three months after its release.  Fry's Electronics has it on sale today for $40.  It is getting solid reviews since it's just minor changes.  The one thing that bugged me about the first game was that the graphics didn't transfer over on the MP.  Ubisoft did that so the framerate wouldn't take a hit.  This time around, Ubisoft has improved the MP graphics to mimic the single player game's.  I'll wait for it to go down in price since there's just too much out there right now.

Dark Sector is releasing next week on March 25th.  From the current hands-on previews from several game site & mags, it's chock full of bugs.  In fact, it was just revealed that the glaive (the game's uber weapon) was the result of a glitch from a thrown weapon.  It apparently got stuck in an enemy NPC & kept spewing out blood.  The developer thought it was cool & turned it into the game's signature weapon.  Talk about mistakes that became reality.  LOL  I was really looking forward to this game & from the early press play, it doesn't sound good.  I'll probably wind up skipping this one.

Well, I grabbed a copy of Army of Two.  I had a gift card for Gamestop so I only paid $30 actual cash.  JohnEmidnight also grabbed a copy as well since his son had it too.  The game has some cool things going, but it simply isn't innovative considering EA slammed Gears as being another run-of-the-mill shooter.  Well, they put their foot in their mouth because the "glass is half empty."  The single player campaign is extremely short (about 6 hours).  As Boxin has already stated, the supposed "last boss" was completely atrocious.  I really don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't played or intend to play it, but I want to save those HDTVs from being destroyed by thrown controllers.  ***SPOILER ALERT...***
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The final boss isn't a "boss" at all. The damn cutscene kills him for you!  Yes, that's right; it completely rips off the player by having a freaking cutscene finish the game for you.  What the hell?!?  I know that a lot of game mags & game sites slammed the game right before its intended release.  That's why EA postponed the first release to "work out the kinks."  Well, they did more deleting than fixing things.  EA left a lot of content that didn't fare well with the previewers on the cutting room floor.  Instead of fixing these aspects, they decided to remove them completely.  What a damn shame & missed opportunity.  There's also no jeep or tank vehicle combat in the retail copy for one thing (it's been removed due to the negative press which caused EA to rework "aspects" of it).   Based on how short the campaign was, I would have just left the darn parts in.  Although the MP is fun, especially with a good buddy; it's simply not deep enough after the fun's worn off.  If it didn't cost me $30, I would have been royally pissed.

Well, that's it Gearheads.  What's your take?  BTW: The patch for Bully is now available on XBL. It fixes the freezing glitches & framerate problems for older 360s (presumably launch units).